Beginnings - Part Two
Last month I began a short series on Beginnings. We identified the six key things a good novel beginning should accomplish and covered the first, hooking the reader, in a bit more depth. This month I want to tackle two more of the six - establishing a bond between the lead and the reader and presenting the story world.
Establishing a bond between the Lead and the Reader
The second thing a beginning should do is establish a bond between the Lead character and the reader. This can be done in a variety of ways, the most common being identification, sympathy, likeability, and inner conflict.
Identification, or empathy, is when we can relate to the character because of who they are or the experience they find themselves in. The more the reader can identify with the lead, the more real the experience feels and the greater the intensity of the story. A story about a man who has lost his job would generate identification and empathy in anyone who has ever been in the same position.
Sympathy goes beyond empathy and focuses on the emotional bond the reader has with the character. Awful things have happened and the reader genuinely feels sorry for the character. You can establish sympathy by putting the character in jeopardy, by having them face some grand hardship, by making them the underdog, or by giving them some sense of vulnerability. Take Rocky, for instance. We cheer for him and want him to win the big fight against Apollo Creed because we see him as the underdog, the guy who can’t possibly win. I use the issue of facing some grand hardship to introduce my character Knight Commander Cade Williams in HERETIC, book one of the Templar Chronicles. Cade has lost his wife to a supernatural event and has to deal with his loss and his burning need for revenge daily.
Likeable characters are those that we might like to be around, whose company we might enjoy. A witty character. An amusing character. A character who cares for others. Frodo in the Lord of the Rings. John Maclean from the Die Hard films. Even the serial killer Dexter, from Jeff Lindsay’s excellent series, might fall into this category.
Characters who are absolutely sure about themselves, who plunge ahead without any doubts or fears are boring. No one goes through life that way. Give a character a sense of inner conflict, of doubts and emotions, and you’re almost sure to engage the reader.
Presenting the Story World
This aspect of a good beginning goes beyond just establishing the time and place of the novel. Yes, it should tell the reader those things, but it should also focus on showing the reader what life is like for the lead character.
Showing the reality of the character’s situation not only helps present the story world, but also provides support for the establishing that bond we just talked about, as well as presenting certain elements that might assist in hooking the reader.
John Ridley’s excellent pair of novels, THOSE WHO WALK IN DARKNESS and WHAT FIRE CANNOT BURN feature a future LA where super powered humans are listed as illegals and hunted by special tactical squads from the LAPD. In the very first chapter, Ridley has the hero, Soledad “Bullet” O’Roark, face off with her team against a pyrokinetic who can toss fire around like a beach ball. The action immediately sets the stage and lets the reader know just what kind of world O’Roark is forced to deal with day by day. We see that reality for the lead character is harsh, unforgiving, and very deadly.
I do something similar with the opening of HERETIC, letting the reader know very quickly that the Templar Order still exists operating in secret as a combat arm of the Vatican, charged with defending mankind from supernatural threats and enemies. Without establishing that right up front, the reader would be lost by the events that quickly follow.
Next month we’ll continue our look at beginnings by examining how to introduce the opposition and some common mistakes writers make with their beginnings.
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Comments
I’m in complete agreement, Sully, especially the later part about the character that you can’t sympathize with but who has hints of virtues or hidden motives. Wolf Larsen is a great example.
One of the two things people usually note about my writing is that they find the characters very real. They don’t necessarily like them (in Deep Blue quite a few people mentioned their difficulty in liking Brandt, my protagonist, because he is kind of a jerk). But they find them real. My upcoming novel, Maelstrom, has a drunken, abusive step-father (based largely on my own) and people have mentioned that they find him fascinating because he’s not a caricature of evil, but a real, believable person with reasons to be the way he is.
In the beginning of a book people make the same sort of first impression judgments that they do in life. You have very much nailed the truth of it…you have to provide a first impression that draws them in and creates the empathy necessary for true enjoyment of the work.
Dave
[...] Nassise on Storytellers Unplugged has started a series on story beginnings; this time he talks about establishing sympathy witht the lead. This is overall a handy site, I [...]
Underscore that character capture of the reader right up front. The kind of attributes that cause us to notice one person over another as we walk through a crowd need to work immediately in a book, and the writer has the advantage of being able to portray things below the surface in order to accomplish that. Fail that quick connection, and you’ll lessen or lose the reader’s interest. From my pov, what makes it tough, though, is the need to create as broadly appealing characters as possible. What attracts me might not attract you. I think you hint at the best strategy, which to my way of thinking is variety and complexity — or even contradictions — in the inner character. At the very least, the reader’s jury has to remain out on a character whose inner self could go a lot of ways. And speaking for myself, I’m fascinated by a character who I cannot immediately sympathize with but who has hints of virtues or hidden motives or other intrigues. A Wolf Larsen (THE SEA WOLF) or Stavrogin (THE POSSESSED), or a charming cad who has the potential to become a reluctant hero (Bogart in “Casablanca” or any of the subsequent cliches like Hans Solo — to borrow from the visual media). Good piece, Joe.
– Sully